Kinshasa was a village on the south bank of the Congo when Stanley passed through in 1877. He returned in 1881 and established Leopoldville on the banks of contemporary Kintambo and Ngaliema. A post was opened upriver at Kinshasa in 1883. In 1923 Leopoldville was named the capital, comprising both Kinshasa and Leopoldville, established at Kalina (now Gombe), while "old" Leopoldville remained the capital of the Province. The Leopoldville-Kinshasa agglomeration was renamed Kinshasa in 1966.

TRANSLATE

Saturday, March 1, 2014

In an earlier
post (See Nov. 26, 2012), I described how King Leopold II engaged
the Association Congolaise et Africaine de la Croix Rouge to provide medical
services in Leopoldville.This led
to the extension of medical services for both Africans and Europeans.In April 1909, with the advent of the
Belgian Congo setting a new framework for colonial development, Minister of the
Colonies Renkin terminated the “Association” and created a Service de l’Hygiène, consistent with
the position of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva that
only National Societies should work in their respective colonies.

The original Red Cross hospital on Mt.Ngaliema

In
1924, the Red Cross returned to Congo as a chapter of the Belgian Red
Cross.Rather than provide general
medical services as had it predecessor, the Red Cross opted instead to focus on
specific diseases.This included research
and treatment of leprosy in Orientale Province and venereal disease in
Leopoldville.This latter focus
was crucial, given the 5 to 1 male-female ratio among Africans attracted to
work in the colonial town.

The original Red Cross building on Ave. Justice

Subsequently
the Leopoldville Committee of the Red Cross, in collaboration with the
Provincial government and the Leopoldville Municipality, opened a dispensary on
July 25, 1929 treating venereal disease.The clinic was adjacent to the Ruwet Club for Congolese in the Cite in
Leopoldville Est (Alphonse Ruwet was a former District Commissioner and then Director
of the Chanic Shipyards).This
facility serving males proved so popular that the Red Cross decided to open a
similar clinic for women.

On
October 10, 1934, the Red Cross inaugurated a four-building complex on a street
in the Cite that would become “Avenue de la Croix Rouge”.The facility was named the Centre de
Médecine Sociale to mitigate the negative connotation of a clinic serving
people with sexually transmitted disease.In his remarks, Jean Ghilain, Representative of the Red Cross and
Director of Unatra (See.Oct.
31, 2011), harked back
to King Leopold II’s role in initially inviting the Red Cross to Congo and its
evolution since then.Vice
Governor Ermens observed succinctly, that the “success, welfare and health of a
colonial enterprise derives from the success, welfare and health of the
colonized people”.The following year, the Red Cross
opened a similar clinic in Kintambo.The Society also explored the feasibility of partnering with the
Aero-Club of Leopoldville to arrange emergency medical evacuations from the
interior.

The Red Cross buildings

Red Cross Clinic Interior

Red Cross Clinic Architectural drawings

After
the Second World War the Red Cross decided to expand its focus to maternal
child care and in 1947 opened a pediatric hospital in St. Jean (now Lingwala
Commune) on Ave. Kalembe Lembe.In
the same year, Ave de la Croix Rouge was paved.The Red Cross facilities in Leopoldville continued to be
managed by the Belgian Red Cross until Independence in 1960, when the Congolese
Red Cross was established under the Presidency of Joseph Davier Tala Ngai a
prominent local businessman, whose son Fernand Tala Ngai was the architect of
several public buildings in Kinshasa (See
Aug. 20, 2011).